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World Rally schedule in question

A new TV contract has WRC organizers upset, leaving many of the races on the schedule up in the air. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Next year’s World Rally Championship calendar has been thrown into disarray after the event organizers last week rejected a contract issued by the FIA for 2013.

The rallies being offered a place in next season’s WRC were contacted by e-mail on May 28, with a five-page contract attached. The contract requested payment of more than $100,000 to pay for the production of television and the use of the safety tracking and timing systems.

Event organizers were told they had to sign and return the contract to the FIA World Rally Championship Commission before June 8, in order for the World Motor Sport Council to ratify the calendar on June 15.

Last year, the rallies were paid approximately $40,000 by promoter North One Sport for their television rights and were given the timing and tracking for free.

The organizers of Rallye de France wrote to the WRC Commission president Jarmo Mahonen and left him in no doubt about their feelings. The letter from the FFSA (French motorsport’s governing body) questions the WRC Commission’s ability to make such contractual demands on events—and rails against the timeframe imposed to sign the deal.

Other events organizers were quick to support the FFSA, stating: “If they [the FIA] expect everybody to sign and be happy, they are very wrong. Including the calendar fees, it is now costing us more than a quarter of a million euros to be a round of the WRC. We want to talk about this at World Motor Sport Council.

“As organizers, we need to stand together on this issue. Some of the events simply don’t have the budget for this.”

The chances of the WRC calendar now being rubber-stamped at next week’s WMSC meeting are believed to be remote.

Mahonen stated that the increased costs to the rallies were necessary to continue the standards set by the WRC.

“In the current absence of a promoter,” he said, “the championship needs investment from the manufacturers, the organizers and the FIA. It is also needed to cover part of the cost of the timing, safety tracking and television production.”

British firm Stage One Technology is the supplier of timing and safety tracking to the WRC, and managing director Simon de Banke said he was ready to help find a solution to what looks like deadlock between the events and the FIA.

“The FIA’s predicament is entirely understandable,” said de Banke. “The money has to come from somewhere. The way forward is to find a solution together which lessens the burden on events. For our part, we’re happy to consider stepping in and working something out. We’ve been supplying safety tracking and timing to the WRC for over 10 years, and we’re all facing some challenging times. Everyone, including us, has to compromise and stick together.”